How to debug vbscript with Visual Studio Community (2019)

Question

I'd like to find a free solution to debug vbscripts, and I tried Visual Studio 2019 Community Edition. I did the very basic installation with only one additional component, the Just-In-Time debugger. I ran all the following steps as administrator.

I have created the file Script2.vbs with this very simple script:

a=1
b=1/0
c=1

I started the command line (cmd.exe) and entered cscript.exe /x "C:\...\Script2.vbs

The script is executed and fails as expected at line 2 but

the problem is that the Just-In-Time debugger doesn't start.

(I expect the popup which is below "The Visual Studio Just-In-Time Debugger window appears" in this Microsoft article)

I have found in this question about the previous version of the Community Edition that there should be the option "Script", but I don't have it:

Note also that if I try to start the script from Visual Studio Community, the menu Debug > Start debugging is grayed out:

My main question is:

Is the feature of debugging scripts turned off with Visual Studio Community Edition?

(which leads to the second question: is there a solution to debug VBS scripts for free?)

Answer 1

peregrinus gave the right answer so I Accepted it. Here are the details:

My test was with Visual Studio Community 2019, version 16.7.7.

1. Install Visual Studio from scratch with only the following 3 minimal components

   • Compilers, build tools, and runtimes
     • C++ CMake tools for Windows
     • MSVC v142 - VS 2019 C++ x64/x86 build tools (v14.27)
   • Debugging and testing
     • Just-In-Time debugger

2. Start Visual Studio Community to select the debugging option "Script" in the menu Tools > Options:

   

3. Run the VBS with the option /x to start the debugger
   "C:\Path to\CScript.exe" /x "C:\Another path to\Script2.vbs"

   

4. A popup appears to select the Just-In-Time Debugger, I kept the options as proposed and pressed OK
   

5. The VBS code is shown, the debugger stops at the first line of the script
   

6. I can add a breakpoint at line 2, watch the variable a, and if I press Continue (F5), that stops at the breakpoint, etc.
   

Answer 2

I installed Visual Studio 2019 Community Edition on a new installation of Windows 10 and experienced this same problem.

My initial installation of VS included just the ".NET desktop development" workload.

Once I installed the "Python Development" workload, the script option appeared under the Just-In-Time debugging options. No other changes were required.

Answer 3

If you are still interested, there is a way to fix Visual Studio Community. It's likely some missing pre-requisites. Therefore you need to "Modify" the installed options and find "Script" debugging options in the Individual Components setup.

For example this is my minimum set of components.

Answer 4

You can download the VBS debugger from my OneDrive https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvqkaKIXzvDieQeOGgxLJICZ-uY?e=3r5B91

It is called scd10en.exe.

It has disappeared from MS's web site.